Phnom Penh

Hello.

Our Bed In The Renakse Hotel

This is a strange city, the people are even pushier than in Siem Reap though thankfully yhere aren't as many beggars, especially children which is a relief.

We started out staying in the Malis Guesthouse in the lakeside area but after two nights there we decided that if we wanted to actually see any of the city then we needed to move out of the self-contained hippy city of the lake and into the riverside area where everything is. We took this opportunity to do our first and last 'Splurge' of the trip and stayed in the one posh hotel that they hve in the lonely planet book, this turned out to be a huge old chinese mansion set in its own beautiful gardens and directly across the road from the royal palace. The rooms were massive with four poster beds and and beautiful seating areas to watch the television. As we were walking to it with our backpacks on the first day there we were suddenly faced wth a huge crowd of people on the path in front of the royal palace, as the entrance to the hotel is opposite the entrance to the palace grounds we thought we'd wait for a second to see what the fuss was about when several cars came out the gate and there was the King of Cambodia waving to us from the backseat of his limousine, quite surreal i can ashore you. 

Skulls of victims in Memorial

The next day we were in for an altogether more sombre exprience when we visited the Killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge just outside the city. Between 1976 and 1979 thousands of people were bludgeoned to death (to save bullets; you can see the fractures on the skulls piled up in the monument) and then buried in the mass graves here, not all of which have been unearthed yet. Its a chilling experience walking around and seeing bits of tattered clothing sticking out of the soil. We left there feeling very sombre and didn't get any better as we went straight to the Genocidal Museum, otherwise known as prison S-21. This was a school until the Khmer Rouge came to power in the 70's when they turned it into there chief interrogation and torture centre, of the 20,000 plus thousand people that were brought here during the regime (including women and children), only 7 survived. Its an eery place as apart from the bodies they found the place has been left exactly as it was when abondoned by the fleeing Khmer Rouge, in many rooms there is just metal bed frame with leg irons, a gruesome picture of the body left there after dying of torture, and dried pools of blood on the ceiling, walls and floor. In other buildings these have been cleared away and there are row upon row of pictures of the frightened faces on boards, pictures taken by the Khmer Rouge of each of there prisoners. 

The Renakse Hotel

After that disturbing day we spent a few more relaxing days exploring the city before we head off to Vietnam.

Apologise but i can't be bothered to write any longer so I'll leave it at that!

marc    

The gate to the Royal Palace

Disturbing

The Memorial at the Killing Fields